Diesel Pusher Blues
I have no idea what to do... We purchased just over a year ago a diesel pusher with only 32k miles, I thought what could go wrong wth a low miles engine that typically go over 1 million miles.... ...
Forum Discussion
Just a follow up to some of the responses. We are supposedly the 3rd owner, we knew the previous owner. The original owner was in the Service and deployed a lot and did not get much use out of it. When he returned home he traded it for a TT.
Some friends of ours purchased it and drove it for just over a year, taking a cross country 4 week trip without any mechanical issues. They traded because they found a brand new model they wanted to purchase and traded it in. Because we knew the previous owners and they had no issues we wanted to trade our 5ver in and join the DP club.
Our Lippert system messed up on our second trip, we believe due to a loose wire that was shorting out and finally causing an electronica short that melted the entire system.
We have used the Coach without issue for a couple of other trips and never noticed any mechanical issues until we got home from a short trip (2 hour one way) and noticed that my aluminum car trailer was all sooted up, but really did not think too much of that. This was 12/31.
I drove it from my storage building home last week to pack for another 75 mile trip and the HIGH TEMP light came on about 5 miles into the trip (engine had been idling for about 30 minutes prior, I was also running the generator just to give it some time)
The HIGH TEMP gauge and alarm would cut off and back on a few times on my 12 mile trip to the house. When I got home, no signs of engine overheating from my untrained eyes and ears. No popping of engine cooling, no boil over of fluids. Had my son crank engine while I was under the Coach and belt was in tack and fan was turning.
The next morning hesitant to make the 75 mile trip and I cranked the Coach and it idled for about an hour while I packed, I then took about a 10 mile trip around town to see if it was going to overheat again, temp gauge stayed just beyond the half way point and no over heating issues. However, when I came to my first stop sign, the DPF light flashed a couple of times and went off once I was in motion again. Next stop light, it did it again.
I made it home (again only about 10 miles total), closed up the house and made my trip without any alarms or problems, other than heavy black exhaust. I had added a bottle of Diesel Kleen to the tank hoping to clear up the smoke at the suggestion of a friend who said might have some bad diesel and since it had been sitting couldn't hurt.
When I got ready to leave on my return trip, less than 10 miles into the trip, HIGH TEMP light and alarms again. As I passed the CUMMINS shop it changed from HIGH TEMP to STOP ENGINE, so I exited and returned to the Cummins shop. This is a CUMMINS shop, not a garage that works on Cummins. It was late on Sunday and they were closed but there was a employee who was on call and happened to be there and opened the gate so I could pull Coach inside for the night and I drove home on our car.
Next day, received a call saying #3 injector was bad and they would call me with updates, next day get call saying , #3 injector bad and caused the DOT, DPF and Turbo to go bad because so much fuel was being passed into it. Stated that "there must have been a breach somewhere on the DPF) and also said there was "oil" in the turbo. In a separate issue, they wanted to replace the fan clutch for the over heating issue after they pulled some codes.
I ask how much is all of this going to run, and that is where I got the $11,000 quote. I told them to stop work and I would call them back.
A few hours later after I settled down from the shock, I called back and asked a lot of questions about, was there any other alternatives, etc and I did not have $11,000 period, was not a don't want to spend it or anything else, I just do not have $11,000 in any shape, anywhere....
Seems like we are over out heads on this and need to get out. I just don't know enough about it and seems really strange to have this much problem with a 32,000 mile engine.
Some friends of ours purchased it and drove it for just over a year, taking a cross country 4 week trip without any mechanical issues. They traded because they found a brand new model they wanted to purchase and traded it in. Because we knew the previous owners and they had no issues we wanted to trade our 5ver in and join the DP club.
Our Lippert system messed up on our second trip, we believe due to a loose wire that was shorting out and finally causing an electronica short that melted the entire system.
We have used the Coach without issue for a couple of other trips and never noticed any mechanical issues until we got home from a short trip (2 hour one way) and noticed that my aluminum car trailer was all sooted up, but really did not think too much of that. This was 12/31.
I drove it from my storage building home last week to pack for another 75 mile trip and the HIGH TEMP light came on about 5 miles into the trip (engine had been idling for about 30 minutes prior, I was also running the generator just to give it some time)
The HIGH TEMP gauge and alarm would cut off and back on a few times on my 12 mile trip to the house. When I got home, no signs of engine overheating from my untrained eyes and ears. No popping of engine cooling, no boil over of fluids. Had my son crank engine while I was under the Coach and belt was in tack and fan was turning.
The next morning hesitant to make the 75 mile trip and I cranked the Coach and it idled for about an hour while I packed, I then took about a 10 mile trip around town to see if it was going to overheat again, temp gauge stayed just beyond the half way point and no over heating issues. However, when I came to my first stop sign, the DPF light flashed a couple of times and went off once I was in motion again. Next stop light, it did it again.
I made it home (again only about 10 miles total), closed up the house and made my trip without any alarms or problems, other than heavy black exhaust. I had added a bottle of Diesel Kleen to the tank hoping to clear up the smoke at the suggestion of a friend who said might have some bad diesel and since it had been sitting couldn't hurt.
When I got ready to leave on my return trip, less than 10 miles into the trip, HIGH TEMP light and alarms again. As I passed the CUMMINS shop it changed from HIGH TEMP to STOP ENGINE, so I exited and returned to the Cummins shop. This is a CUMMINS shop, not a garage that works on Cummins. It was late on Sunday and they were closed but there was a employee who was on call and happened to be there and opened the gate so I could pull Coach inside for the night and I drove home on our car.
Next day, received a call saying #3 injector was bad and they would call me with updates, next day get call saying , #3 injector bad and caused the DOT, DPF and Turbo to go bad because so much fuel was being passed into it. Stated that "there must have been a breach somewhere on the DPF) and also said there was "oil" in the turbo. In a separate issue, they wanted to replace the fan clutch for the over heating issue after they pulled some codes.
I ask how much is all of this going to run, and that is where I got the $11,000 quote. I told them to stop work and I would call them back.
A few hours later after I settled down from the shock, I called back and asked a lot of questions about, was there any other alternatives, etc and I did not have $11,000 period, was not a don't want to spend it or anything else, I just do not have $11,000 in any shape, anywhere....
Seems like we are over out heads on this and need to get out. I just don't know enough about it and seems really strange to have this much problem with a 32,000 mile engine.
